66 
The Farming of Cheshire. 
only a small charge for wharfage. The course of cropping 
which is practised (commencing in the neighbourhood of War- 
rington) is as follows : — 
The land is manured and planted with early potatoes in the month of 
March, and the gathering of the crop commences towards the middle of 
June. As the ground becomes clear of the first growth, Swedish turnips 
or a second setting of potatoes are planted ; on the removal of this crop 
wheat is sown, and in the spring clover, which is mown the following year, 
and is then pastured for three or four years. Sometimes early cabbages 
are planted in November after the potatoes, and sold off in the spring; in 
which case the land is planted again with potatoes, and undergoes the 
same course, having received a good manuring for the cabbages ; the land 
is generally trenched for the potato crop. Proceeding towards Al- 
trincham, some difference in the management is observable ; much of the 
land being suitable for the growth of carrots, a part of almost every farm 
is appropriated to the culture of that vegetable ; four or five acres are let 
to gardeners at 2s. per rood of eight yards square. The system pursued is 
to skim the grass ley, then trench the land into Ibur-yard butts, burying the 
sod in the trench ; sow broad-cast, and clean with small hoes. The crop 
averages about 15 tons per acre : the land is potatoed the following year, 
and sown with wheat in the autumn ; then a crop of oats, and laid down 
with seeds ; sometimes pastured for one year, but generally mown twice, 
and broken up again. 
Another practice is to have oats on leys marled on the oat-stubble ; then 
potatoes and turnips, followed by wheat laid down with red clover, 12 lbs. 
to the acre ; mown and broken up for wheat ; then turnips, manured from 
the farm-yard, or with horse-dung from Manchester, at 6*. Qd. per ton, and 
followed by barley, sown with a mixture of red and white clover, 10 lbs. of 
the former and 3 lbs. of the latter, besides seeds from the hay-loft ; mown 
the following year, and broken up again for wheat. This course is pur- 
sued for several years, until it is thought that the field requires rest. 
Another course adopted in this district is as follows : — 
Potatoes on ley, with two ploughings; first, thinly skimmed, then a 
strong furrow, then wheat, laid down in the spring with clover; mown and 
broken up again for potatoes, which are followed, as before, by wheat; 
sometimes oats are taken after wheat, and the land is laid down with seeds, 
to remain a short *ime in pasture ; but few cattle are kept, and perhaps 
the necessity for them is not very great, on account of the facilities afforded 
by the canal for laying down manure on the farm. There are no dairies 
here, the milk being sold to the dealers for the supply of Manchester and 
the surrounding neighbourhood. 
In order to explain and illustrate more fully the various systems 
of cropping practised in Cheshire, 1 subjoin some extracts from 
letters with which 1 have been favoured by correspondents, in 
reply to my applications for information From the Hundred of 
Macclesfield : — 
" The course of cropping generally followed here is very bad; the fal- 
low is usually planted with potatoes, and then wheat on all descriptions of 
soil, some of which is very inferior for the latter, and not at all adapted for 
its cultivation. After wheat, oats with clover, which the farmers cut once 
and then leave the land in a poor and dirty state, to lie two or three years 
In grass. In some cases lime is ajjplied in a mortared state the second 
year, but the land yielding no pasture capable of producing milk or butter 
